Helen does deserve happiness, but that would involve making the right decisions. Sasha is another Noah Solloway. There's no getting away from that.

But maybe that's why Helen finds herself drawn to him. This could be foreshadowing an ending in which Helen and Noah give their life together another shot, and it's difficult to get behind that.

If that does turn out to be the case, then the underlying message of the series will be, "You can have an affair and go home again." That's not a useful takeaway for a show that was once one of the finest on TV.

Helen: I just wasn't prepared for how permanent it is. Sasha: Death is relentless.

She had a strong bond with her father even after her mother died. But now she rarely mentions him, and when she does, there's just pain.

We now know he's not living in Montauk. He built that house and loved it there, but it's not hard to imagine that all he saw when he walked through the place was heartache.

There were remnants of his time with Alison strewn all over the place. It's a shame Joshua Jackson is no longer a series regular because losing Cole and Alison so close together has had a profound effect on the rest of the series.

Now that Joanie is in her childhood home, we should start getting some answers on The Affair Season 5 Episode 3 -- assuming they don't introduce a perspective for Sasha into the mix and the Joanie stuff gets banished to The Affair Season 5 Episode 4.

Is it bad that I wouldn't put it past the writers of this show?

This episode was a mixed bag. There were some decent moments and some downright tedious ones that shouldn't have made the final cut.

I wouldn't oppose to the rest of The Affair Season 5 being set in the future with Helen, Noah, and Joanie's worlds colliding.

The truth is, the current timeline is growing stale with the characters continuing to make the same mistakes.